ABSTRACT
The Ceylon Tamils have, with their industry and resourcefulness, made a strong mark on their rocky little homeland, and are locally packed as tightly as in the southwest coastlands. Much of the individuality of Ceylon may be attributed to the fact that it is not only an island but an island in a prominent position in the Indian Ocean. In the pre-Cambrian terrains of Ceylon some observers have seen three more or less eroded peneplain-like surfaces, rising from the sea like the treads of three steps, and separated from each other by mural scarps. The rainfall of Ceylon is subject to considerable variability. The rivers of Ceylon are for the most part short and radial, rising at high or intermediate elevations and tumbling by stages to the plains. Ceylon has sizeable stretches of alluvial soils, notably in the Mahaweli Ganga delta and in the infilled east and west coast lagoons.
